Three Sisters Stew

By Susan | Published: July 12, 2010

The “Three Sisters” is a planting method used by many North American Native American groups.  The “sisters” are corn, squash and beans.  When these three plants are grown together, they are called companion plants because each helps the others to grow.  The corn forms a trellis for the beans to grown on, the beans replenish the nitrogen in the soil and the squash grows low to the ground, sealing moisture into the soil and preventing weed growth by shading the ground.

These three plants can be delicious together, and easy on the budget, too.  In the summer in Kansas, there’s plenty of corn, tomatoes, yellow squash and zucchini to be had, and beans are the quintessential budget food item.  Three Sisters Stew is a cheap and delicious way to enjoy companion agriculture.

Here’s how:

Ingredients:

  • 3 ears of corn, shucked
  • 4 ripe tomatoes
  • 2 yellow squash
  • 1/2 pound pinto beans
  • 1 zucchini
  • 1 onion
  • 5 cloves garlic
  • 3 jalapenos
  • Salt
  • Cumin
  • Cayenne Pepper
  • Chili Powder

Directions

  • Chop the onion.  Mince the garlic.  Add the 1/2 of the onion, 1/2 of the garlic and the beans to a saucepan.  The beans, onion and garlic should fill the saucepan about a third of the way up.  Now add water to fill the saucepan and bring to a boil.  Cover and turn the heat down to low.  (Note:  Do not add salt because it will prevent the beans from getting tender.)
  • While the beans are simmering, get a pot that is big enough for the corn to lie flat in it.  Fill it with about four inches of water.  Bring to a boil.  Add the corn.  Boil for about 5 minutes.  Remove and drain.  Let the corn cool.
  • Chop the tomatoes, yellow squash and zucchini into small pieces.  Chop the jalapenos. Put them in a bowl together.  In a large, lidded cast iron skillet, saute the other half of the onion and garlic in a teaspoon of olive oil.  Add the jalepeno, squash, zucchini and tomato mixture and toss.
  • Preheat the oven to 250 degrees.
  • When the corn is cool, cut it off the cob and add it to the cast iron skillet.  Add the beans.  Cover with water.  Add a generous amount of cumin, cayenne pepper, salt and chili powder and stir.  Put the lid on the skillet and, using hot pads, put it in the oven.  Leave it in the oven for about an hour.
  • If you’re cooking this for dinner, you can serve it at this point.  If you’re preparing it for the next day, turn the oven off and leave the skillet in there.  The next day, the beans and veggies will be flavorful and tender.
Posted in Cheap, Recipes, Soup, Vegan, Vegetarian | 2 Comments

Simplified Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato Soup

By Susan | Published: June 19, 2010

Price Chopper had a 5 for $5 sale on red peppers, so I stocked up.  Most recipes for red pepper soup involve tedious peeling of the red peppers.  That is simply not an option for a lazy chef who hates getting stuff under her nails, so I’ve simplified the typical recipe.  You won’t end up with a smooth gourmet soup with this recipe, but you will get a robust summery soup with a lovely bright red color.

Ingredients:

  • 5 red peppers, seeded and chopped
  • 1 head garlic, peeled and minced
  • 1 can tomatoes, peeled and diced
  • 1 can-ful tomato juice
  • 1 cup cream
  • salt

Directions

  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Once you have the red peppers and the garlic chopped, spread them out in a casserole dish and put them in the oven for about ten minutes.  This step really brings out the garlic and pepper flavors.
  • Remove the peppers and garlic from the oven and pour them into a large soup pot.
  • Add the canned tomatoes, and tomato juice.  Add water as needed to make the soup thicker or thinner.
  • Boil until all ingredients are soft.
  • Blend the soup, one or two cups at a time.  Crazy people can now strain the soup to make it perfectly smooth.
  • Return the soup to the soup pot.  Add the cream and salt to taste.
  • Serve warm or cold.
Posted in Easy, Low Carb, Recipes, Soup, Uncategorized, Vegetarian | Leave a comment

Kentucky Style Potato Salad

By Susan | Published: June 6, 2010

I had this potato salad at a barbecue in Kentucky and had to have the recipe.  Anything with mayo and pickles is delicious in my book.  This is a great salad for picnics (although keep it cool because you don’t want the mayonnaise sitting in the sun).

Ingrdients:

  • 1 lb red potatoes
  • 3/4 cups sour cream
  • 1/4 cup mayonnaise
  • 8 oz “babies” pickles or cornichons
  • 1 yellow onion
  • Salt to taste

Directions

  • Wash the potatoes.  You can peel them if you want to but I’m too lazy and there are nutrients in the skin anyhow.  Put them in a large pot and cover with salted water.  Boil until tender.
  • Drain the potatoes and let cool.
  • Chop the onion into small pieces.
  • Chop the pickles into small pieces.
  • In a bowl, mix the pickles, onions, sour cream, mayonnaise, and salt.  When they’re cool, add the potatoes and stir.  Enjoy!

You can also hardboil some eggs, chop them and add them to the salad, but I didn’t have any eggs today.

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Tomato Salad

By Susan | Published: June 5, 2010

This is the easiest salad of all time. I was full at dinnertime tonight, but got hungry around 9:30. I wanted something healthy, and “invented” this salad. It takes five minutes to prepare and would be a great dish to take to a picnic or a potluck. The key is really tasty tomatoes.  This recipe makes one serving, but can easily be expanded.

Ingredients:

  • 1 tomato
  • 2 teaspoons chopped cilantro
  • 1 teaspoon sour cream
  • Pinch of salt

Directions:

  • Cut the tomato into quarters and de-seed it.  Then cut it into bite-sized pieces.
  • Toss the tomato, sour cream, cilantro and salt in a bowl.
  • Enjoy!
Posted in Cheap, Easy, Low Carb, Recipes, Uncategorized, Vegetarian | Leave a comment

Vegetarian Red Beans and Rice

By Susan | Published: May 31, 2010

This is a cheap, delicious dish with such full flavor you won’t miss meat.

Ingredients:

  • 1 lb beans, any combination of red kidney and pinto
  • 5 ripe tomatoes, quartered (if you can’t get good ones, use canned.)
  • 1 cup brown rice
  • 1 yellow onion, coarsely chopped
  • 3 jalapenos, coarsely chopped
  • 3 teaspoons cumin
  • 4-5 teaspoons chili powder
  • 2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
  • 1/2 cup strong brewed coffee
  • 3 teaspoons salt, add more to taste
  • 3 teaspoons brown sugar

Directions:

  • Soak the beans in a bowl of water overnight
  • The next day, preheat the oven to 350 and chop the vegetables.  Add the beans, jalapenos, tomatoes, onion, spices, coffee, sugar, and rice to a dutch oven or heavy covered baking dish (the best is cast iron or clay). Stir thoroughly and add to the oven.
  • Bake for two hours.
  • Serve.  You can dice another tomato and some cilantro to make a cold salsa to add as a topping.
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Weeknight Mexican Soup

By Susan | Published: May 31, 2010

The secret to this soup is tomato juice.  You can throw it together when you get home from work at 6 and be eating a hearty and healthy dinner by 6:45.

Ingredients:

  • 24 oz tomato juice (look at the ingredients on the bottle to make sure you’re getting nothing but real tomato juice, salt and vitamin C.)
  • 1 can black beans
  • 1 zucchini, washed and diced.
  • 1 yellow squash, washed and diced.
  • 3 diced fresh tomatoes or 1 can tomatoes.
  • 1 can corn
  • 1 onion, chopped.
  • 1 jalapeno, chopped.
  • 3-5 teaspoons chili powder
  • 2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
  • 3 teaspoons ground cumin
  • Shredded mexican cheese or sour cream for topping.
  • Chopped cilantro.

Directions:

  1. Add all the ingredients except the cheese, cilantro and sour cream to a large soup pot, add water to cover the veggies and bring to a boil.
  2. Simmer for about thirty minutes.  Poke the squash to make sure it’s soft all the way through.  When it is, you can serve.
  3. Top with mexican cheese, sour cream, or cilantro, or any combination.
Posted in Cheap, Easy, Recipes, Soup, Vegetarian | Leave a comment

Aromatic Chicken Broth

By Susan | Published: May 19, 2010

I guess it was inevitable that after law school finals, a road trip, graduation weekend and starting a new job I would get sick.  But what horrible timing!  I have to get well quick, so I’m medicating myself with a combination of new and old remedies.  However, I find that the old ones are the most soothing (tea, a hot bath, orange juice), and the most soothing of all is chicken broth.

When someone else gets sick, I don’t cut corners.  I make the broth from scratch, stewing chicken and then boiling the bones for a rich, wholesome broth.  However, I am the one who’s sick now, and I wanted something medicinal but easy.  Here’s my recipe for chicken broth for self-medication.

  • 32 oz store-bought chicken broth, good quality (go a notch above Campbell’s for this)
  • 1/2 lemon
  • 1/2 onion, peeled
  • 4 cloves garlic, peeled
  • 1/4 cup orange juice
  • 1 tsp rosemary leaves
  • 3 bay leaves
  • 1 tsp ground thyme
  • salt to taste

For this recipe, don’t chop anything.  Put the broth in a saucepan and turn the heat to medium high.  Cut an onion in half and toss one half in.  Cut a lemon in half and toss one half in.  Peel the garlic cloves, but you don’t have to chop them, and toss them in.  If you’re really tired, just cut the head of garlic in half without peeling and toss it in.  Pour in the orange juice, add the seasonings and let boil for about twenty minutes.  If you can see the kitchen from your couch, lie down while it’s boiling.  When it’s done, turn the heat to warm and enjoy.

As you’re dishing it out, just avoid the lemon, onion and garlic so that you only serve broth.  Serve in mugs and sip throughout the day.  This is a great fluid delivery system– you have to stay hydrated but sometimes water tastes gross when you’re sick.  It also packs vitamin C in the orange juice and lemon, and garlic is known to support the immune system.  The salt will help with a sore throat.

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Navy Bean Soup with Bacon and Rosemary

By Susan | Published: May 3, 2010

Once you buy dried beans for one thing, you have a lot of them for another.  This is one of my favorite soup recipes because it’s easy, hearty and cheap.  You can use ham hocks instead of bacon to save a couple of dollars.  The key is fresh herbs.

Ingredients:

  • 8- 12 oz bacon
  • 3 cups navy beans and black-eyed peas, soaked over night
  • Leaves from 3 sprigs fresh rosemary (not the stems)
  • 3 sage leaves
  • Leaves from 3 sprigs fresh thyme (not the stems)
  • 2 bay leaves
  • Salt
  • 3 stalks celery, chopped
  • 1 large onion, chopped
  • 4 carrots, peeled and chopped
  • 20 oz chicken broth (it’s worth getting a nicer brand than Campbell’s for this because a lot of the flavor of the beans comes from the broth.  I like Emeril’s or Kitchen Basics)
  • Water

Directions

  1. Soak the beans overnight.  Rinse them in a colander.  Really.  There was mud in the bottom of the bowl I soaked them in.  Also watch out for any little rocks.
  2. Cut the bacon into 1-inch strips.  Brown it in the bottom of a heavy bottomed soup pot over medium heat.
  3. Add the onions, celery, carrots and spices.  Toss with the bacon for about a minute.
  4. Add the broth, spices, beans.  Add enough water to cover all the ingredients with about an inch of liquid.  Bring to a boil and let simmer for about an hour and a half.
  5. Serve!

Note:  This soup is much better the second day.

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Ten Bean Stew

By Susan | Published: April 28, 2010

10 Bean Stew

The inspiration from this dish came from an overpriced soup mix at the grocery store.  For $5.00, you could get a little 8oz package of “soup mix,” which in reality, was just a bunch of dried beans and some “spices.”

I decided bean stew sounded pretty good, but I figured I could make a lot more of it for a lot less!  And, given that beans are cheap, high in protein, high in fiber, and there are multiple varieties in this soup, it’s gotta be pretty healthy too.  This soup is a great place to stretch your meat dollar, which means that it’s a good place to use ethically (no hormones or antibiotics) grass-fed beef.

Also, given concerns about bisphenol-A (a chemical found in canned food that can disrupt the endocrine system over time), this is a great way to get away from canned beans.  Dried beans are also cheaper.

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup pinto beans

    Beans!

  • 1/2 cup kidney beans
  • 1/2 cup black beans
  • 1/2 cup navy beans
  • 1/2 cup black-eyed peas
  • 1/2 cup split peas
  • 1/2 cup azuki beans
  • 1/2 cup cannellini beans
  • 1 cup brown rice
  • 1 bunch cilantro, chopped
  • 1/2 lb grass-fed ground beef
  • 1 red pepper, chopped
  • 1 orange pepper, chopped
  • 3 jalapenos, chopped
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 1 can diced tomatoes
  • 3 tbs cayenne pepper
  • 3 tbs paprika
  • 3 tbs chili powder
  • Salt to taste
  • 3/4 cups brewed coffee
  • 3 tsps brown sugar
  • 3 bay leaves

Directions:

  1. Add all the beans, rice and peas to a large pot with about 10 cups water.  Add the chili powder, paprika, cayenne pepper, bay leaves, coffee, brown sugar, and salt.  Bring to a boil.  Simmer for about two hours or until all the beans are soft.
  2. Add the beef, veggies and cilantro.  Simmer for about thirty or forty-five minutes or until the veggies are soft.
  3. Serve with cheese or sour cream on top.  Enjoy!
Posted in Cheap, Easy, Recipes, Soup, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Simple Lentil Soup

By Susan | Published: April 28, 2010

Lentil Soup

Lentil soup is a cheap, nutritious staple soup.  I’m still working on getting it perfect, but this is a pretty good version.  If you add split peas, the color of the soup will be a bit greener.  Lentils were one of the first crops cultivated by humans– we’ve been eating them since the Neolithic age.  About 25% of their calories come from protein, making them ideal for vegetarians and vegans.  They also have tons of cholesterol-lowering fiber.  Magazines love to include them on their lists of superfoods.

Ingredients:

  • 1 1/2 cups carrots

    Ingredients for lentil soup

  • 1 cup chopped celery
  • 2 cups lentils (may substitute some split peas for some of the lentils.)
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 3 1/2 cups water
  • Bay leaf
  • Cayenne pepper
  • Salt
  • Lemon
  • Plain greek yogurt

Directions

  1. Add the water, lentils, veggies, bay leaf and cayenne pepper to a pot.  Bring to a boil.  Boil until soft.
  2. Blend the soup either with an immersion blender or two cups at a time in a conventional blender.
  3. Squeeze the juice of the lemon into the soup, taking care not to let any seeds get in.
  4. Serve with a bit of plain greek yogurt (use a bit of lemon juice and parsley to keep it vegan.)
Posted in Cheap, Easy, Recipes, Soup, Vegan, Vegetarian | Leave a comment